Pa. man got $92-quadrillion PayPal credit

Tuesday

Jul 16, 2013 at 3:22 PMJul 16, 2013 at 3:26 PM

Stephanie Farr

A real pal will give you a dollar when you're in need, but a PayPal will give you $92 quadrillion.

Delaware County resident Chris Reynolds received just such a shocking delivery from PayPal on Friday, when he opened his monthly statement from the online money-transfer company via email and saw that his ending balance was $92,233,720,368,547,800.

"I'm just feeling like a million bucks," Reynolds told the Daily News yesterday. "At first I thought that I owed quadrillions. It was quite a big surprise."

Reynolds, 56, of Media, said he's been a PayPal customer for about 10 years and uses it to buy and sell items on eBay, including vintage car parts. He said he usually spends no more than $100 a month using PayPal.

After absorbing the initial shock, Reynolds logged on to PayPal's site and saw that his balance was listed there as zero.

Sad trombone.

Still, Reynolds said, the imaginary epic windfall left him feeling charitable. After opening the email, he donated $30 to the Democratic slate for Delaware County Council.

"I was moved to be really generous by good fortune," said the father of three.

If the prodigious account credit were true, Reynolds - who with his wife owns Reynolds Ink, a public-relations firm - said he'd pay down debts with the money.

"I'm a very responsible guy," he said. "I would pay the national debt down first. Then I would buy the Phillies, if I could get a great price."

Last month, PayPal announced PayPal Galactic, an initiative to expand its payment-transfer business beyond Earth. Perhaps Reynolds' astronomical PayPal credit could get him a few trips to the moon, or at least a nice stay at a space hotel.

A spokeswoman said that PayPal doesn't disclose customer-account information because of privacy policies, but added that she would look into the matter to see what may have occurred.

Meanwhile, Reynolds said he had gotten another notice from PayPal since Friday.

"The sad part is that I got word that they still need me to renew the credit card that's attached to this account," he said. "So, even though I have 90 quadrillion dollars, they still don't trust me."